Power consumption

[oralpain]

I've been screwing around with undervolting/underclocking my CPU.

Right now im running at 0.85v, 800Mhz and the computer is perfectly usable. I'm also passively cooling it. Idel temps are 1C above ambient, load gets into the lower 30s (these are tCASE temps, not on-die, obviously). I think this would be the way to go for silence, though in a closed case a very low speed fan or larger than stock heatsink might be needed.

EDIT: droped voltage to 0.8, the lowest I can go. Very stable at 800MHz. Oddly enough, I can still play all my games just fine. FPS is significantly lower, but everything is very playable.

[DsW]

Cheers for the magazine pointer Lu-tze - I'll try and get hold of a copy.

Interestingly, Tom's Hardware Guide stated that the Mac Mini used only 20W when idle.. which sounds great.. now if it was only half the price and had a 300GB hard drive

[tommylittleboy@]

Cheers for the magazine pointer Lu-tze - I'll try and get hold of a copy.

Interestingly, Tom's Hardware Guide stated that the Mac Mini used only 20W when idle.. which sounds great.. now if it was only half the price and had a 300GB hard drive

Its very quiet and will go into sleeping mode when left untouched. The server for windows/ smb and other server functions are easily switched on with one click. Ive stored my entire music collection on mine, and transferring music through my netgear box works perfectly.....ooh, Ive just realised I am trying to sell u a mac...sorry . Anyway Thats the mini, I couldnt resist myself! If you are tempted, use the apple store for higher eductation, you get a 10% discount.

EDIT: Did I mention, its easy to set it up to run headless, and an external firewire HD can be used also. btw how much music do you have anyway?

[DsW]

I've not done half my CDs yet and I'm at 100GB (flac files). After that it's my vinyl and MD collection.. plus I need to factor in future CD purchases etc.

[tommylittleboy@]

I've not done half my CDs yet and I'm at 100GB (flac files). After that it's my vinyl and MD collection.. plus I need to factor in future CD purchases etc.

PC it is then! haha

[DsW]

In case anyone's interested.. I've opted for the setup below. I reckoned it gives the best balance of flexibility, functionality, value and low power consumption.

Living room PC / SlimServer PC

VIA EPIA SP 13000 £150
Hipermedia Chassis £55
Panasonic Slot Load Notebook DVD writer £48
Samsung Spinpoint HDD 80GB £37
Cat5 crossover cable connected to Squeezebox 2 Wireless £2

NAS

Lacie 500GB Ethernet disk £400


Putting the server PC in the living room has two advantages

1. I can take advantage of the Squeezebox 2's bridging capability to allow wireless connectivity (thus removing the need for a seperate card)
2. I can hook it upto the TV for internet browsing

NAS has several advantages

1. Server PC can be small and quiet
2. easy expansion
3. low power consumption
4. can be accessed from any PC on the network

However.. its' pretty damn expensive and I'll need to buy two of each NAS device if I want to keep backups

Did look at Mac Mini but that would have added about £200 to the price of my server PC so it was a no-brainer.

Anyway.. thanks for all your help and have a good weekend!

[oralpain]

You could just get a network hardrive. You don't need a whole computer just to share files.

[Butcher]

For the kind of system you seem to want, get a good active PFC powersupply (zippy, pc power and cooling), a quality mobo that lets you use a wide range of below stock voltages, a cheap video card, a single stick of ram, and a single large harddrive. You could easily build a PC that uses less than 60 watts total most of the time.

Active PFC is less efficient than passive (or no) PFC. you're better off without it for minimum consumption (unless you're charged for bad power factor).

[DsW]

You could just get a network hardrive. You don't need a whole computer just to share files.

I'm not just sharing files mate - I need to run the SlimServer app to control my Squeezebox 2.

http://www.slimdevices.com/su_downloads.html

[oralpain]

How is active PFC less efficent?

Isn't a higher power factor normally more efficent by definition?

Granted the difference is not large, in most cases, but from what I've seen active PFC PSUs are a bit more efficent and lower EMI can help too.

[arthurleung]

Active PFC reduce line load. Instead of going 10A then 1A current, it averages out at 5~6A, hence saving cable cost. It does not affect power conversion efficiency at all.

DO NOT GET THE LACIE DISK. I've seen loads of people with failed Lacie due to poor cooling design. They're not meant to run for 7x24, I doubt they can even run 7x8.

Samsung Spinpoint HDD 80GB £37 <--Get a Hitachi 5K80 instead.

Save all your trouble and get an imac mini, you don't need to pay for winxp license that way. Do you really need a DVDROM there (let alone writer)? You could copy from network, and I doubt you would burn a dvd from there.

You could play a DVD over network though so there is no big need for that notebook cdrom.

[DsW]

DO NOT GET THE LACIE DISK. I've seen loads of people with failed Lacie due to poor cooling design. They're not meant to run for 7x24, I doubt they can even run 7x8.

Samsung Spinpoint HDD 80GB £37 <--Get a Hitachi 5K80 instead.

Save all your trouble and get an imac mini, you don't need to pay for winxp license that way. Do you really need a DVDROM there (let alone writer)? You could copy from network, and I doubt you would burn a dvd from there.

You could play a DVD over network though so there is no big need for that notebook cdrom.

Interesting point about the Lacie disk. Will check it out more.

Why do you recommend a Hitachi instead of the Samsung? Is it as quiet?

I was planning on using either Gentoo or Debian anyway so no XP license needed. No way I'm paying another £200 for a Mac Mini.

The DVD writer is there mainly to install the OS. I couldn't actually find a notebook style DVD-ROM drive when I looked - only writers. If you know of somewhere selling one then a link would be great! The case only takes the notebook style.

[arthurleung]

Interesting point about the Lacie disk. Will check it out more.

Why do you recommend a Hitachi instead of the Samsung? Is it as quiet?

I was planning on using either Gentoo or Debian anyway so no XP license needed. No way I'm paying another £200 for a Mac Mini.

The DVD writer is there mainly to install the OS. I couldn't actually find a notebook style DVD-ROM drive when I looked - only writers. If you know of somewhere selling one then a link would be great! The case only takes the notebook style.

The hitachi is 2.5" (I said 5K80 not 7K80)

[Butcher]

How is active PFC less efficent?

No, doing more work in the PSU is less efficient.

Isn't a higher power factor normally more efficent by definition?

No. Power factor has little to do with efficiency.
Power factor is a measure of how resistive vs inductive the load looks. Most AC electrical devices are somwhat inductive, which means they will absorb power during part of the AC cycle then release it during the other part. Power companies don't like this because it means you get a load of power being dumped back on the grid out of phase with the main supply. Power companies thus like your devices to have a power factor close to 1. Active PFC is some circuitry which makes an inductive load (like a transformer) look like a resistive load (like a wire). This is great if you're a large industrial company charged for how good or bad your power factor is. It means nothing to residential customers though as power companies don't charge them for poor power factor.
Active PFC uses power to do it's correction (hence the term active), which means active PFC supplies are less efficient than passive or no PFC (all other things being equal).

Granted the difference is not large, in most cases, but from what I've seen active PFC PSUs are a bit more efficent and lower EMI can help too.

Active PFC supplies are usually more expensively built, which is where the efficiency and lower EMI comes from. The fact that it has active PFC is irrelevant to how efficient it is - it's largely just a gimmick to sell expensive PSUs.

[SHISH]

I believe PFC is a requirement in the EU nowadays or is/was going to be.
I know they`ve already mucked up a lot of the older standards and regs.

But read http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/pfc.html here and make your own mind up with correct info.
Or google for many other links.